Question of the Day #796

China’s Ukraine quagmire

From the headline of this article at Politico.

上記の文で、quagemireの意味は？
In the sentence above, what does “quagmire” mean?

答えは、コメントに書いてください。
Write your answer in the Comments.

明日、ここに答えを書きます。
I will add the answer and other remarks here tomorrow.

---

解答

意味：
英辞郎によると、

1. ぬかるんだ土地、湿地、沼地、泥沼
2. 窮地、窮境、ピンチ、（抜け出せない）苦境

一応二つの訳がありますが、二つ目の訳として「泥沼状態」でもいいのではないかと思います。

Answer

According to Merriam-Webster:

1. soft miry land that shakes or yields under the foot
2. a difficult, precarious, or entrapping position : PREDICAMENT

Examples

• Since the coup, the country has sunk deeper into a quagmire of violence and lawlessness.
• When I tried to get my tax situation straightened out with the government, I ran into a bureaucratic quagmire.
• His people had fallen further and further into a quagmire of confusion. 
• This quagmire would cause a terrible loss of life, destruction, displacement, depopulation of urban areas, a massive humanitarian catastrophe, as well as terrible losses for Russia, without a conclusive outcome for Russia. — Peter Bergen, CNN, 15 Mar. 2022
• The Soviet Union sought to keep a similar veil of silence around its decade-long quagmire in Afghanistan in the 1980s, but the truth seeped into public consciousness anyway, eroding the foundation of the entire system. — New York Times, 20 Mar. 2022

このサイトが役に立つと思ったら、ぜひ英語に関心のある知り合いとシェアしてください。